Fulfillment and Felicity !

So...

How do we reach fulfillment?

you can read Buddha,

Ekhart Tolle, the Bible,

and they all say fulfillment is reached

through prayer or meditation,

giving of yourself, and controlling your ego. But you also have to look after yourself very well!

In my case, fulfillment is through family, love, work and art.

Not that I consider myself a VanGogh by any means. But I get to revel in the richness of colour, the interplay of textures, and the visual delights of design through my hobby.

Do you know people who have no hobbies? And they dont look forward to retiring? I do. I cant even imagine a life of no interests... just work , eating, and watching television.

I have so many hobbies and things I still want to learn, I will probably be even busier when I do retire.

Today, I read on the CTMH Felicity blog for January:

Psychology Today offers this advice: get a hobby. “Hobbyists are amateurs - that is to say, the most intrinsically motivated of lovers. They court their pastime, not for conquest or for gain, but for pure pleasure. Hobbies are, quintessentially, forms of play.” In other words, passing time with your hobby is the same as doing what you love, and doing what you love is what makes for happiness.

That sounds like making love to paper to me!!

I do know one thing... fulfillment is reached by not taking but by giving of ourselves, and in my case this works in all the areas I mentioned : family, love, and work.

The older I get the more this is true!

The trick is to find a balance where you are not overworking yourself, yet feel satisfaction in what you have done. I prioritize my family over my work... (sorry Ms. Mann) My boss already knows that !

smiles to you all!

Paper Romanza

I borrowed the title from Amy Leggate's blog : Paper Romance!

It fits these tiny 3x3

cards perfectly.

I used Love's Language acrylic stamp by CTMH for the heart. The paper is all CTMH (vintage More to Adore ) as well as the ribbon (from the chocolate collection) . Julia sent me a bag of chipboard swirls that I inked in chocolate and used to mount some of the hearts on.

I left the fronts blank intentionally, so I can use these for Valentines, thank yous, or tiny love messages.

Designs inspired by the Stamp Goddess (Teresa Black)

The Many Faces of You

Just a quick page from the ongoing 9 year project called the hockey album, on my son Colton James, who is getting very close to 17 years of age.

Since I focus so much scrapbooking on his hockey in uniform, I wanted to include a picture of him in his dress shirt and tie (with lucky Thanksgiving tie clip that I got him for getting a win. I used to get him little presents like mini sticks or pucks or pins for shutouts... now the presents are for wins ! lol.)

At 16 he makes good decisions, works hard at school and sports, and has a bright future ahead of him. He has a great sense of humour and helps me a LOT at our home. He will be missed when he goes to university.

I used CTMH base pages in black and added some background paper and journalling, and a few stickers. Pretty simple.

Hoppy Easter, Happy New Year, HAPPY BLOG ANNIVERSARY to me!

In thanks to my profession, I had time over the Christmas break to catch up on some unfinished layouts from 2009. I had started this layout up north in November at the chalet with Bernie and Peggy. I chose a fresh new palette of citrus leaf, sorbet, taffy, and juniper cardstock as the colours of Spring . I was thinking of mounting the title on little ovals to look like Easter Eggs and had the letters ready to adhere, and the photos were mounted in place. I left a large 7 x 5 space on the left for my main photo. The corner rounder was put to good use and I was pleased with the groupings of baby birds, bunnies, flowers, and children in the photo groupings. We had a simply phenomenal spring last year on Driftwood, as far as nature and baby creatures was concerned. The bunnies were hopping in and out of my front garden for weeks.

I knew the big Easter bunny picture of John and Jacqueline was somewhere in my studio and would turn up with a good look. Last week, dad brought over a huge bags of stamps and papers that my good friend Julia in BC sent along to me via Toronto, and lo and behold, inside that bag of assorted used stamps was an Easter set with 25 different adorable patterned eggs. Instant title! I located the main pic and the layout came together. I was inspired to create the large ribboned egg with ricrac and brads. I cut a white daisy paper flower in half to adorn the ends of the egg.

This decade brings my third year in blogging . I started this blog exactly 2 years ago... and enjoy sharing my thoughts and projects in this way. Thanks for looking!

and...

to all my readers, a very Healthy and Happy New Year!

2010 Brings Felicity!

Close to my Heart has a special kit just for National Papercrafting Month and I LOVE IT.
It’s named the Felicity Collection, and it contains exclusive regular and die-cut B&T Duos®, three amazing color schemes, and a stamp set that includes bitty birds, funky argyle patterns, flirty flourishes, and even an entire alphabet!

It can be yours free with a minimum purchase, or purchased outright from http://stefinitas.cuttingedge.myctmh.com/

Felicity was used to create this adorable birdy card! They used a piece of the diecut circle to create the branch . so sweet!

You can also check out the special Felicity blog:

The blog was created just for the month of January and will feature all sorts of Felicity projects!!

I am so inspired already .